


I Guess This Is A Family

by PrincessJaqulineChess1031



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Multi, One-Shot Gallery, Romance, friends-as-family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-03-26 15:11:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19008340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrincessJaqulineChess1031/pseuds/PrincessJaqulineChess1031
Summary: A series of one-shots, drabbles, and stories about our favorite newsboys.





	1. Who I’d Be

**Author's Note:**

> Requests are welcome if you want to see something.

_I guess I’d be a hero, With sword and armor clashing_

_Looking semi dashing, A shield within my grip_

_Or else I’d be a Viking and live a life of daring_

_While smelling like a herring, upon a Viking ship._

The first thing Race did that morning was go to his closet. Hidden in the back was an old sweatshirt — his old sweatshirt — which Race kept hidden away most days. He only dragged it out on days like today, where the memory of Davey was too strong to ignore.

The soft fabric felt familiar from how it’s use but also foreign from the months between when he had last put it on. The sweatshirt was gray with a giant Columbia University logo across the front, a sizable stain on the right sleeve from when Race and Davey had ate pizza one nightthat never washed out. Race pulled it on slowly, hoping that it would still smell like him.

It did, but only vaguely. Race supposed maybe it would fade completely as the years passed.

_I’d sail away, I’d see the world, I’d reach the farthest reaches_

_I’d feel the wind, I’d taste the salt and sea._

_And maybe storm some beaches._

_That’s who I’d be. That’s who I’d be._

Making breakfast doesn’t happen. He knows he should, but he just barely makes into the living room before he collapses onto the the couch. Some kind of news anchor is saying something on the television, but Race doesn’t hear it. A part of him half-expects Davey to tell him to turn to the news.

Davey always liked the news. He was a nerd like that.

_Or I could be a poet and write a different story,_

_One that tells of glory, and wipes away the lies_

_And to the skies I’d throw it, the stars would do the telling_

_The moon would help with spelling, and night would dot the ‘I’s_

 

“Davey!”

Davey laughed as Race launched himself at him. Race loved the sound of his laugh, and he nuzzled his face into Davey’s neck in a way that Race knew tickled him just so he could hear it again. Davey scuttled out of the doorway, shutting the door behind him, re-entering them into the New York spring.

“Okay, okay Race,” Davey said, trying to push Race off. “I’m glad to see you too.”

Race finally detached himself and looked up at Davey, staring at his eyes for the first time since he got here. The second he saw Davey’s eyes, his heart dropped. Normally when Race looked into Davey’s eyes, he saw wonder and compassion, a curiosity that could never be contained. 

But this look? This look was one of soberness, one with the beginnings of defeat. He hadn’t seen that look since the early days, when him and Race had met in the hospital all those years ago. Before the adventures — before Race and Davey had worked hard to get that curiosity back into Davey, zipping around the subway back and forth for an entire day, watching people come and go, working to get the perfect cupcake recipe, stupid stuff that had meant the world to Davey and Race because only a little bit ago they had feared they could never have that.

“It’s back,” was all Race said. Davey didn’t say anything, just nodded with thinly pressed together lips. That was the first clue that it was back for good this time. So Race would treasure this time he met Davey on his stoop, because it was the last time it was a normal greeting. The last one not overshadowed by a what if? 

_What if this was the last one?_

 

_I’d write a verse, Recite a joke, with wit and perfect timing._

_I’d share my heart, confess the things I yearn, and do it all while rhyming._

_But we all learn. But we all learn._

The first text, predictably is from Jack, which wakes Race from his nap on the couch. That doesn’t surprise Race. Jack and Davey had been best friends, and Race was pretty sure Davey had made Jack promise to look after Race or something else like that. At least, Race hoped that he had, it would explain why after Davey’s death Jack had gotten more involved in Race’s life, like back when they were kids.

 

_From Jackie Boy_

_I know it’s today, so I know you’re not okay. But just...just text me sometime. Let me know you’re taking care of yourself._

 

Race just sends back a simple ‘I’m fine’ even though he clearly wasn’t, and buried himself back in the sweatshirt, going back to sleep.

 

_We’d stand and stare, we’d speak of love, we’d feel the stars ascending_

_We’d share a kiss, I’d find my destiny_

_I’d have a hero’s ending, a perfect happy ending._

_That’s how it would be_

_A big bright beautiful world_

 

“What do you mean ‘ _Shrek 2_ is a bad movie,’?!”

Davey shrugged in the hospital bed, leaning back against his pillow.

“I mean it’s a bad movie Race,” Davey said. Race brought a hand to his chest dramatically, mocking offense.

“ _Shrek 2_ is a cinematic masterpiece!” Race said. “It basically raised me!” Race leveled his gaze at Les, who was sitting in the corner with a smile. “You’re with me, right Les?”

Les laughed and nodded along.

“See, your brother is with me!”

Davey let out a weak imitation of his laugh. Race felt his heart break into a thousand, no, a million pieces, and Les’s look told Race the twelve year old’s wasn’t fairing much better. 

Davey must have caught Race’s look, but he outstretched a scarily thin hand, which Race took with a forced smile.

“Babe, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing love,” Race said, waving off Davey’s concern. It was obvious Davey didn’t buy it, but Davey let the issue drop. They both knew why Race was upset and Davey didn’t want to talk about his morality at the moment.

“So, Les,” Davey said, rounding on his brother but keeping Race’s hand locked in his own, “how’s school?”

 

_So yes I’d be a hero, and if my wish was granted my life would be enchanted or so the stories say._

_Of course I’d be a hero and I would scale a tower to save a hot-house flower and carry them away_!

 

Eventually Race had to eat something, but his march to the kitchen was a slow one and he picked something simple. As he watched his oatmeal go round and round, his phone rang.

It was Crutchie trying to video-call him, which again, was no surprise. Crutchie hated texting, and he loved talking face-to-face, so video-calling was something that happened often. He briefly thought about ignoring it, but Crutchie was a worrier. It would do no good to leave him unanswered since he would just get everyone riled up and then he would have many more phone calls to make.

He answered, and it was Crutchie’s kind but painfully sympathetic look.

“Hey Race,” Crutchie said. 

“Hey Crutch,” Race answered. The microwave dinged that it was finished but Race ignored it.

“How’re ya doing?” Crutchie asked, looking genuinely concerned. Race felt a knife turn in him at the expression. He didn’t want concern. He didn’t want pity. He just wanted to be alone.

“How do you think?” Race nearly spat. Crutchie winced on the other end of the phone, and Race felt bad. Still, he didn’t apologize.

“Stupid question, I know,” Crutchie said. “Just didn’t know what else to say.”

Not really an excuse but Race just let it go.

“I won’t keep you long,” Crutchie said after an unbearably long and awkward silence, “but, uh, Spot’s SO sent him home with some kind of casserole yesterday because their wife made extra or whatever. But it’s got carrots and I’m allergic to them, so we’re trying to divvy it up between the guys. I just wanted to kno-know if it was okay if Spot came by with it after he got off shift.”

Race was certain their was no SO casserole but that someone (probably Al) had made it and decided to send it to human tornado masked as dance teacher Racetrack Higgins. But still, he said yes anyway, because he really didn’t feel up to making dinner tonight.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Race said.

_An Ogre always hides, an Ogre’s fate is known_

_An Ogre always stays in the dark and all alone_

 

“Damn Racer, you look like shit,” Spot says, standing over the couch with a frown. Race looks up from his seat with a scowl, throwing a pillow at Spot.

“Thanks for the update Spottie,” Race said, thinly veiled venom in his voice. Race wasn’t even sure he heard Spot come in. He just looked up and Spot was in his living room.

“Dude, have you even showered today?” Spot asked, wrinkling his nose.

“I was about to before you stormed in,” Race fibbed, voice mumbled into the collar of the sweatshirt.

“No you weren’t,” Spot said, crossing his arms. “Did you forget once upon a time we were together Race? Plus I’ve been your friend for years. I know all your tells. One of which is taking into your shirt.”

Damn Spot.

“Now, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to take a shower and then you’re going to come out here and eat half a plate of casserole and you’re going to hate it but you’re going to do it.” Spot’s tone was final, leaving no room for argument, but Race did anyway.

“No.”

Spot raised a brow.

“I’m sorry, did that I finish that sentence with ‘if it pleases his highness’?” 

“Just go away Spot.” Race turned away from Spot, burying his head in the couch cushion.

“Not going to happen.”

“Go away. You’ll never understand what this feels like.”

Spot was silent for a moment. It was a strange silence, a tension filled one that made Race’s stomach turn, but not like it had earlier in the day. It was so much, Race was forced to look up and he was surprised to see Spot’s expression — broken and confused and helpless, three emotions Spot almost never showed.

And then Race just knew.

“Crutchie’s sick again, ain’t he?”Spot nodded. “Bad?” Spot nodded again. “Like this is the end bad?” Spot made a broken sound.

Well, shit. They had all met in the hospital, but they had thought — they had hoped that Crutchie wouldn’t get sick again. It had been five years for Crutchie next week. They had all been so excited for Crutchie, even if Race had resented him selfishly. Why had Crutchie and Spot got a happily ever after while Davey was six feet under?

Now all those selfish thoughts, Race wish he could take back.

“That sucks,” Race said. What else could he say? He knew flowery words did nothing.

“Yeah. It does.” Spot cleared his throat. “But first things first, you need to get cleaned up.”

This time, Race made no fight. Soon enough, Race knew him and Spot would have to switch places. Better to start off on the right foot.

_There are rules and there are strictures. I believe the story books I read by candle light._

 

“Do you ever think about what life would be like?” Davey asked wearily, voice weak.

Race pulled his head up from where he had placed in Davey’s thinning brunet hair. Against the nurses instructions, Race had climbed next to Davey on the hospital bed, Davey quickly cuddling into his side. A few months ago, Davey would have freaked out at the violation. Now, Davey said nothing, just pulled Race close.

Maybe because the end was near, and Davey wanted him close. Maybe because Davey just didn’t give a damn. Race wasn’t sure.

“Like what?” Race asked.

Davey shrugged, the sound of Looney Tunes from the hospital T.V. punctuating the silence between them. 

“If I wasn’t sick,” Davey said.

“Simple. I’d just be cuddling you in our apartment rather then in a hospital bed.”

Davey furrowed his brow. “Our apartment?”

Race held back a blush. “Yeah. Ours. I mean I’m eighteen and you’re twenty, and we’ve been dating for like four years. I figured by now we’d have reached that part of our relationship.”

Race left out the part that his folks had kicked him out last week, which partially motivated his fantasy of living with Davey.

Davey and Race were silent for another moment. The Davey spoke again.

“Don’t stop living Race,” Davey said. His voice sounded a million miles away and a thousand times older than he was.

“What?”

“After I’m gone, you have to keep fighting. Don’t focus on what who’d we be or what’d we be doing if I lived. Live your own life.”

Before Race could respond, a nurse came in and hustled Race out, mumbling about how he should sit so close to Davey and how visiting hours were over. But in the days following, Race would think of those words, especially two weeks later when THE phone call came. The one that told him the love of his life was gone.

Race tried to follow Davey’s instructions. But on the anniversary of the death. No. That was Race’s day to survive. Not live. But survive.

Every other day of the year he lived. He taught dance classes at a small studio run by an old woman long past her dancing prime but with a sharp tongue for the ages. He helped his family of friends, he raised money for charity, he was a good neighbor, helped Les with his homework and tried. Tried his damndest to live.

But not today. He just couldn’t today.

 


	2. Steps to Falling In Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three couples slowly move closer in the early winter months of 1900.

1) Jack and Katherine — A Promise

After the end of the strike, Katherine’s claim to the Pulitzer name had been revoked. Her former father had decided that since she enjoyed working under the name Katherine Plumber so much that perhaps she should just keep it. And Katherine, who was just as stubborn and just as determined, hadn’t blinked an eye. Just packed her things and left.

The girl’s boarding home she managed to get in a room in was a far cry from the world she had grown up in. But still, it was hers. The small room that barley had room for a desk and her bed at the same time, it was hers alone. Her job as a reporter paid for it. For the first time in her entire life, she had something no one else could take from her.

“Jeeze, Kath, I come to visit ya and ya can’t even look up from your fancy article?”

Well, not quite the first thing.

Katherine turned in her chair, where her rather agitated beau Jack was sitting on her bed, legs crossed with a teasing smile.

“I can see you anytime,” Katherine said, shaking her head. “This article is due in the morning love. And could you lower your voice? My landlady wouldn’t take too kindly to a boy being in my room.” 

Jack rubbed the back of his neck and leaned back against her headboard. The window, which had been hastily shut after Jack’s entry because of the freezing temperature, was drawn shut with her pink curtains, clean, pristine and freshly ironed. Unlike her boyfriend, who had ink on his hands from cartoons and papers and scratches from a fight with the Delancey’s last week. Always, it seemed, he jutted out in her life.

“I’se sure I could sweet talk her into letting me stay,” Jack said, eyes twinkling. “Asides, it’s visiting hours, ain’t it? Even me and the boys got that.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and walked over to him, the wooden floor creaking under her heeled boots.

“Yes, well, I’m sure that Kloppeman isn’t too keen on girls sitting on beds and sneaking in through the window.”

Jack scoffed and looked at her from under his eyelashes.

“Yeah, that’s why I’se decided it was best to come here,” Jack said. His eyes were twinkling dangerous and he nodded to the where the door was shut. “Least here we can lock the door.”

Katherine laughed under her breath, remembering their second meeting.

“What is with you locking doors?” Katherine asked.

“I’se like my privacy,” Jack said with a shrug. His tone was light but his eyes were stronger. Much deeper, dazzled with darkness. “Especially where you’se is considered.”

Katherine raised a brow. “What kind of a girl do you take me for Mister Kelly?”

“Easy, Miss Plumber.” Jack leaned forward, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her closer to him. He placed a kiss to her nose. “Mine.” Katherine laugher as Jack nuzzled into her hair, feeling his smile against the skin of her scalp.

“Careful Jack,” Katherine teased. “It’d be scandalous to be found with an unwed woman like this.”

Jack hesitated, but then he spoke, face still in her auburn curls.

“Wh-What if we’se was married though?” he whispered. Katherine felt he heart freeze.

“What?”

“I’se don’t mean ri-right now or —and I’se don’t even have a ring or —“ Jack gulped and pulled back from her, but her eyes and his still couldn’t find a way to meet. “This is-this ain’t a proposal and I-I ain’t meaning to put you’se on the spot Kath.”

Katherine couldn’t quite process what she was feeling? Joy? Confusion? Anger? Nervous? The only one she could claim without creating even more confusion was annoyance. She was annoyed with Jack. For not making sense, for bringing this up, for-for-for-

“A promise,” Jack said. It was like a light went off, the word finally realized. “A promise I’se guess is the best word for it. You’se know I’se not so good with words, not like you.” A deep part of her managed to laugh weakly. “I’se wants to marry ya one day Kath. I’se don’t got a plan. We’re not ready to get married, I knows I ain’t. But I wan-I want to marry you someday. This is just a promise, if you’se want it. One day I’se going to ask you to marry me. That is, if you want it.”

Did-did she want that? Marriage? To Jack? She had known him less than half a year. And her world had exploded in that time. So much change — she had fought for change for others and got it herself. She had lost one family and gained another. Turned a comfy home into a one room. 

The thought of more change, one day was making her afraid. So afraid. But also excited. The idea of a life with Jack excited her, even the dim prospect of a far away one. Jack had shaken up her past. She wanted to give him her future too.

Katherine smiled and quickly peeked his cheek.

“That’s a promise I could agree to,” Katherine said. Jack smiled.

“For sure?”

“For sure.”

2) Race and Davey — Confession

It was cold. Too cold for anyone to be out, so once Davey had finished selling for the day, they had decided it was best to go ahead and head home, forgoing their usual trip to the newsboy lodging house. Race, his assigned selling partner for the day, had been reluctant to come with them when Davey had offered him a chance to come with, but Race had relented when Davey had promised a bit of soup.

Race’s agreement put a funny, excited feeling in Davey’s chest. Davey choose to ignore that feeling.

The Jacobs apartment wasn’t much better than the outside, but the blankets were at least better to hold onto than thin sleeves. Davey, who had arrived to find it empty which was no surprise given the time of day, just pulled the blanket around him and Race at the kitchen table (a move meant solely to warm up, not have Race next to him, no, really) and watched the door closely. Davey had sent through the grapevine of newsies that Les was to come straight home after selling the day paper, as it was far too cold to try the evening edition.

Even Race had opted out of evening edition, which said something.

“Quit worrying Dave,” Race said. Race’s hand clutched Davey’s under the thick quilt. “Les’ll show. Asides, I’se have to head back sometime. I’se can send him back if I’se have to.”

“No!”

Race blinked wildly, surprised at Davey’s outburst. Davey was too. But the thought of Race going back out into that cold twisted something like a knife in Davey’s chest. Davey found he had a lot of feelings like that about Race. Where he worried about him, wanted him to be safe, wanted to protect him. At first Davey had thought that he was thinking of Race like a brother, like he did Les and Jack and Crutchie and all the others, but then that thought had immediately been dismissed.

Their was something deeper. Sometimes so deep it scared Davey.

Race smirked. “You’se worrying about little old me Dave? I’se touched.”

Davey gulped. “You’re-you’re important to me Race. Course I worry.”

Race’s smirk fell. “You shouldn’t worry.”

“But I do.” Davey needed Race to know that he cared. Needed Race to understand. Needed Race to know that deep feeling. Maybe Race knew it was. Maybe he felt the same.

“You’se want to know a secret?” Race asked. Race’s breath was hot against Davey’s nose. “I’se worry about you too.”

Then Race reached up and kissed Davey. At first, Davey didn’t know what to do. Davey had never been kissed before, and he hadn’t ever thought his first one would be with a boy. Boys that kissed other boys ended up in jail or worse. But..but Race’s lips felt right and warm and perfect. So it took less time than Davey thought for him to melt into the kiss.

It was barely long enough to be considered one though, and Davey soon missed the taste of tobacco that Race’s lips had.

But in it, enough was said. Both were afraid and unsure what this was, but both knew this was something to fight for.

3) Crutchie and Anne Marie — Meeting

A new family had moved into the apartment at the end of neighborhood. Crutchie wasn’t surprised — the old man that had lived their had unfortunately died, leaving the apartment open for rent again. And given that it was an uppity neighborhood, Crutchie wasn’t surprised when the person that moved in was a stuffy young man with his nose in the air and nothing more to say to Crutchie than to demand a paper.

So imagine his surprise when he saw her in the window. In the window of the apartment, a curtain was pulled back, which Crutchie had only caught because he had stopped because of the cold. The cold always caused his muscles to tighten, making his bad leg all that harder to manage.

He had meant to stop for just a moment, to let his leg rest, when he had looked up to see a girl in the young man’s window. It was a pretty girl too, with red hair pulled tightly into a bun and bright eyes and fancy shoes that looked more like pink blocks than shoes. And she was staring right at him.

They just stared at each other for a long while. Crutchie couldn’t look away. Just kept staring on. Why was a girl in the window of the man? Was it his wife? A sister maybe? Far too young to be a daughter, unless Crutchie had majorly missed judged his age.

But then the girl raised a hand to wave, mouthing the word hi to him. Crutchie, a little perplexed and surprised, raised a hand to wave back, mouthing hi in return. The girl smiled wider, but then the girl turned away, surprised, like someone was talking to her and the curtain was shut. And just like that. She was gone.

Crutchie soon returned to work, but tomorrow, he looked to see her again. And again. And again. Everyday for a month, until finally the girl was on the street in front of him, smiling breathlessly in the cold without a coat, wearing a strange dress that looked very fancy and expensive and no shoes.

“I don’t got much time,” the girl said, voice thick with a Southern accent, “but my name is Anne Marie Dawson.” She reached out a hand to shake. “What’s yours?”

Crutchie, for the first time in a long while, actually said his real name without thinking.

“Charlie. Name’s Charlie.”


	3. A Hard Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack always knew saying goodbye to Romeo would be tough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Romeo is 12 and Jack is 18, it’s somewhere around Early Fall 1900.

Jack always knew saying goodbye to Romeo would be one of the hardest to do. Saying goodbye to all the fellow newsies was going to be rough. Seeing the fear in Race’s eyes as it sunk in that Race was technically in charge now, the thinly veiled sorrow in Crutchie’s smile as Jack hugged his brother goodbye, the way Albert’s hands shook as Jack gave him a final handshake.

But Romeo? Romeo was going to be something else entirely. Buried deep in Jack’s heart of hearts was a deep affection for the young boy, a kind, brotherly love like what he had for Crutchie. It was still different from Crutchie though, because though Jack had a need to protect his brother, Jack knew Crutchie could take care of himself. He had watched Crutchie grow in the ten years they had known each other.

Romeo though was stuck perpetually like he was when Jack met him when Jack was twelve and Romeo was seven. A scrawny little kid with a stubborn streak and a wannabe flirtatious smile, a kid that had immediately became one of the people Jack swore to protect. Something deep and powerful within him wanted to keep Romeo safe forever, because he forever wanted to keep Romeo that little seven year old kid so Romeo wouldn’t have to grow up.

Jack didn’t have a name for his relationship with Romeo. He just knew saying goodbye to him was going to be a doozie.

Jack knew just where to find him too. Romeo was hidden away in a back room of the lodging house, his hat tucked down so you couldn’t see his face, despite that he was alone as he scribbled shapes and lines across old newspapers.

Jack just watched Romeo for a moment, Romeo oblivious to Jack’s eyes. All other newsies in here had cleared out at Jack’s appearance, knowing what was about to happen was not something for others to see. Jack was grateful for that.

Jack hesitated for just a moment. What could he say to Romeo? Jack knew Romeo was upset over Jack leaving, that’s why the twelve-year old had been avoiding Jack for a week now. Jack wasn’t sure what to do or say. He wasn’t good at words like Kath or Davey or even like Race was. He didn’t know how to cheer up the boy, let alone get Romeo to see everything was okay.

“Hey kid,” Jack said. Romeo’s head shot up, at first with a happy smile before he dropped, apparently remembering he was upset with Jack.

“I thought you left already,” Romeo said, words biting at Jack’s skin. Jack barely managed not to wince.

“I head out to the Men’s Lodging House tonight,” Jack explained. Jack’s new jobs left him with little room to sell papers anymore and he had accumulated more than enough from his job at The World as cartoonist to get a room at a regular boarding house. The signs were all around him, it was time to leave the newsie life in the past.

Romeo’s fist curled around the paper in front of him, effectively ruining the drawing he had been working on.

“What do you want Jack?” Romeo asked.

“I came to say goodbye Romeo,” Jack said. Romeo’s frown stiffened.

“Well, now you’se said it,” Romeo said. “You’se can leave.”

Jack felt an angry frown pull at his face. All he wanted to do was tell Romeo goodbye. Why did Romeo have to be so difficult about this?

“I came to give a proper goodbye,” Jack said. Jack took a seat next to Romeo on the floor. Jack swiped Romeo’s hat playfully and Romeo fumed, reaching blindly for the hat. “I’se cant leave behind my favorite little one without saying a good ol’proper goodbye can I?”

Romeo finally pulled the hat away from Jack, but didn’t put it back on his head. Romeo instead left it in his lap, twisting the fabric around and around in his hands.

“Or you’se don’t have to say goodbye at all,” Romeo said. “You’se could always stay.”

Jack sighed. “Romeo, all of us gots to go at some point. We’se can’t be newsies forever.”

“Sure you can!” Romeo said. “At least you’se could! You’se the best there is! Everyone will buy from ya, no matter the age you’se is! You’se can stay!”

“Romeo...” Jack sighed, and pulled Romeo into a hug, which Romeo didn’t fight. “Romeo, I’se can’t stay.”

“Yes you’se can!”

“Romeo, I’se got that fancy new job down at The Woirld working for Kath’s dad, so I’se don’t got much time to sell papes no more. Kloppeman just gonna kick me out.”

“We’se could hide ya,” Romeo whispered into Jack’s shoulder. Jack chuckled.

“I’se give it a week before Race ran his big mouth and got me busted,” Jack said. This got a laugh out of Romeo.

“I’se give it a day,” Romeo admitted. “But I’se still don’t see why you have to go.”

“I’se got a new job Romeo,” Jack said. “One that gets me off the streets. Asides, I’se getting older. People don’t really like buying papes off adults. It’ll help me save up money, start a family with Katherine one day.”

Romeo grumbled. “I don’t like Katherine.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Romeo, you love Katherine.”

Romeo basically adored Katherine, all the newsies did. Sure, she could be a little abrasive sometimes, but deep in her their was a kind and loving heart of gold. She could go toe-to-toe with their quips with her own sass. Add that in with her loyalty during the strike, and she had won over most the newsies. Katherine could even get a ghost of smile out of Spot on a good day.

“But if you’se leave, you’se gonna forget me,” Romeo said. Jack felt his heart shatter. Him? Forget Romeo? Something like that was never going to happen.

“Romeo, I’se not going to forget you’se,” Jack said. “You’se my Romeo and I’se your Jack. I’se can never forget about you’se.”

“But when you’se leave, you’se not going to come back,” Romeo said. “Just like Ma and Pop.”

Jack should have expected. He should have known that’s what Romeo’s mind would jump to, it’s what Jack’s mind always jumped to when people left him. That they weren’t ever coming back. That this was the real, true end.

“Romeo, I’se will always come back for you,” Jack said. “I’ll visit and you’se will visit me, and I’se’ll do anything to see you.”

Romeo sniffled and Jack looked down to see Romeo was crying now. Jack reached down to wipe away to wipe away his tears with a soft smile.

“I’se gonna miss you Jack.” Jack’s smile twitched.

“I’se gonna miss you too Romeo,” Jack said. God was Jack going to miss Romeo. He was going to miss Romeo so damn much. He was going to miss watching Romeo grow and laugh. He was going to miss his friend — his brother — his son —

Yes. That was it. It may only be five years difference, but Jack was the closest thing Romeo had to a dad. Jack was going to miss being that for Romeo.

“But hey,” Jack said. “Thinks of it this way, soon enough you’se going be running the newsies.”

Romeo’s face twisted in confusion. “What?”

“Well’se Race is in charge now —“ though not for long, Jack was willing to bet, the horribly concealed looks Race shot Davey seemed to suggest Race would be leaving to be Davey’s ‘roommate’ within a couple years “— and then probably Finch or Al, but after that....probably gonna be you and Les running things.”

Romeo blinked. “Me? In charge?”

“Well, Finch or Al’se gonna need a second right? I’se willing to be it’s gonna be you.”

Romeo’s lips tinted upwards at the possibility. It seemed Jack’s plan to cheer him up had worked.

“But that can’t happen unless I’se go,” Jack pointed out. Romeo’s smile vanished and he fiddled with his hat again.

“Promise you’se gonna visit?”

Jack reached up for his old hat and stuck it on Romeo’s head, ignoring the swell of almost regret in his stomach. Romeo would be better off with it than him.

“Promise.”


	4. I Miss You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katherine spends Spring Break with Race.

Katherine Plumber knew that Racetrack Higgins could be a little....strange to say the least. Spending Spring Break alone, with just him hadn’t been part of her game plan. And yet, here she was.

She liked him well enough though. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad.

She hoped.

**Monday**

“Kath, get out of the library and come get ice cream with me!”

Katherine rolled her eyes and didn’t even indulge Race by looking up from her laptop. Race, the only other person in their friend group apparently still on campus, had been trying and failing for the past hour to get her to hang out with him.

“Race, I have this paper due first thing next Monday,” Katherine said. Race tittered next to her and leaned back in the wooden table chair.

“That’s in a week!” Race said, whisper-shouting . The librarian looked up in annoyance but didn’t say anything. Regardless, Katherine gave an apologetic smile before whipping back around to face her blond friend.

“Early bird gets the worm,” Katherine said quietly. Race smirked and leaned forward.

“And the second mouse gets the cheese,” Race shot back, voice barely soft enough to be considered a whisper. Katherine growled under her breath and turned back to her laptop, scanning over her last sentence on St. Augustine’s writings.  

“I’m actually trying to get work done here, Race,” Katherine said. “Can’t you go bother someone else?”

Race narrowed his eyes. “Are you and Davey telepathically connected or something? ‘Cuz that’s literally what he says to me.”

Katherine sighed heavily. “What does Davey say then to you to get you to stop?”

Race shrugged. “Normally I just keep annoying him until he stops or finishes.” Race then smiled wickedly and wriggled his eyebrows. “That or I distract him by making out with him.”

Katherine wrinkled her nose.

“I’m not making out with you,” Katherine said sternly. Race pouted, but didn’t look upset.

“Why not?” Race said.

“Race, you’re a)gay and b)in a committed relationship,” Katherine said, rolling her eyes.

Race smiled teasingly and crossed his arms.

“I’d leave Davey for you any day sweetheart,” Race said, but Katherine knew he didn’t mean it. Race was just naturally flirty with everyone, regardless of their gender. It was how he showed affection, both platonic and romantic. “Just don’t tell Spot that we kissed and we’d be good.”

Katherine blushed wildly, and against her will she might add, at the mention of the Brooklyn boy.

“Oh, please, Spot wouldn’t care,” Katherine laughed off, even if she secretly hoped she was wrong. A small part of her thought maybe their was something there between her and Spot, but another part of her just thought she was lonely after her break-up with Jack. That she just was misplacing her feelings.

Race’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, did Spot reject you? This calls for immediate ice cream!”

Before Katherine could even blink, her laptop was shut and slung under Race’s arm and her bag across his shoulders.

“Wait, Race —“

Race didn’t listen, pulling her up from the chair and out.

“To ice cream!” he yelled as they left the library.

^^^^

“Now, at the expense of falling into the standard ‘gay best friend that you complain to about boys’ trope,” Race said once they were settled with a pint of ice cream in her dorm room, “tell me everything. I want all the juicy gossip right now.”

Katherine sighed deeply and settled deep into a crevice of the couch in her and Sarah’s room, tangling her legs with Race’s as he laid at the other end. Katherine carefully kept her back to Sarah’s desk, where a photo of Sarah and Jack sat clear as day. Even though Katherine was over Jack and perfectly okay with her surrogate sister/best friend date her ex, it still stung a little to see. Jack and her had dated for years. It would take a bit to get over seeing Jack with someone else, even if it had been seven months.

“There’s no gossip Race,” Katherine said. Race looked at her suspiciously as he took a bite of cookies’n’cream ice cream.

“Then why did we get ice cream?” Race said pointedly. 

“Because you dragged me to the store to buy it?” Katherine said, motioning down at her pint of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Race nodded solemnly.

“Fair point, fair point,” Race said. Race took another bite of ice cream. “Seriously, what’s the deal with you and Spot? Like, have you two done it yet or not?”

“RACETRACK!”

Katherine’s face was redder than a tomato. Race just blinked in confusion, tilting his head to the side.

“What?” Race said. “We all know you two are into each other. He’s giving you bedroom eyes every five seconds and you two are always talking about how great the other is. Just skip to the part where you two make-out already.”

Katherine poked at her ice cream with her plastic spoon. Spot was a complicated subject. Last time she had talked to him, Thursday before he went off with the baseball team for an out-of-town game, Spot had alluded to wanting something more. She just wasn’t sure what to make of that yet.

“Enough about me and my love life,” Katherine said eventually. “What about you and Davey? How are things going?”

Race shrugged, but his eyes shone brightly.

“We’re doing okay,” Race said.

“It’ll be a year in June, right?”

Race’s smile softened. “Yeah. He,uh, actually wanted me to go to his home for Spring Break, to Chicago I mean, but then his uncle died. He didn’t want him bringing his boyfriend home for the first time to overshadow it.”

Katherine furrowed her brow, for once at a loss for words.

“Were him and his uncle close?” Katherine asked. Race shook his head.

“Not really,” Race said. “But still, I can understand why maybe me coming wasn’t the best idea. Davey’s never brought anyone home before. It would be the talk of the town, not the man who died.”

Katherine supposed that made sense.

“Any idea when you might meet his parents?” Katherine asked. Race shrugged again, and his eyes were bright again, but different than before. Shiny and wet, not kind and dry.

“‘M not sure,” Race said, and Katherine could hear a sting in his voice. Even if Race knew and understood why Davey told him to stay, it obviously hurt a little bit to have his boyfriend tell him to stay at all.

Katherine took a bite of her ice cream and considered what she could say, but came up empty. 

“Hey, you wanna hack Sarah’s Netflix and watch _Riverdale_ reruns on my laptop?” Katherine asked. Race smiled, looking a little less hurt.

“I knew I liked you.”

**Wednesday**

 

Katherine woke up that Tuesday with Race three inches from her face. She scram and leaped up, forehead banging against Race’s. Race was sent scrambling back to the edge of her bed, falling on his butt and rubbing at his brow.

“Well good morning to you too!” Race said. Katherine rubbed at her own forming bruise and sat up in bed. 

“Race, what are you doing here?” Katherine demanded.

“I was wondering if you wanted to get breakfast at the Caf,” Race said simply. Katherine’s eyes glinted darkly.

“I meant in my room Antonio,” Katherine said. Race laughed, crossing his legs.

“You gave me an emergency key, remember?” Race said. “Against dorm policy I might add.”

Katherine felt a deep, guttural growl collect at the bottom of her throat.

“Correction: I gave Jack a key back when we were dating and you stole it and made copies,” Katherine said. Race just kept smiling innocently at the foot of her mattress.

“First of all, you broke dorm policy anyway by giving Jack a key,” Race said, as if he was explaining to a little kid. “And secondly, I made copies of everyone else’s dorms too. Don’t think you and Sarah are special.”

Katherine groaned and threw herself back down on her pillow, pulling her arm over her eyes.

“What time is it anyway?” Katherine asked.

“Little after 9:30,” Race said. There was movement at the end of the bed and then the mattress rose a little, meaning Race had finally gotten off. “Which means we have thirty minutes until the caf closes up breakfast and then we have to wait an hour and a half for lunch to open. So come on, get up.”

Katherine grumbled but did not get up. Katherine didn’t get crazy on school breaks — she didn’t party or drink or go on adventures. But she allow herself the indulgence of sleeping in, a luxury she didn’t get with her class load. Waking up before noon on a school break was sac-religious to one Katherine Pulitzer.

“Race, can’t you find someone else to go to breakfast with you?” Katherine said. Race made a noise, and then her arm disappeared, and she was staring up at a wall as Race began shaking her arm to get her awake.

“Everyone else is out of state, at home, or, Crutchie’s case, doing the Lord’s work.” Race finally stopped shaking her and Katherine sat up on her elbows at the mention of her other blond friend.

“Race, just go get breakfast if you want it that bad,” Katherine said. “Eating is not inherently a social activity.”

Race frowned and sat down on the couch, pouting.

“But I don’t want to go alone,” Race said. Katherine felt the growl rising.

“Then looks like you’re stuck waiting for me to decide to get up.”

^^^^

“I can’t believe you made me wait three hours,” Race said, squirming in his seat. Katherine rolled her eyes and picked at her plate.

“I didn’t make you do anything,” Katherine pointed out. “I said you could go to breakfast by yourself, and you did not. And now you are at lunch with me instead. The two things are related, but it is not cause and effect.”

Race grumbled and took a sip of the apple juice he had gotten for pointed measure.

**Friday**

 

“Hey Crutchie!” Katherine said, Race waving at her side. Crutchie smiled up at them from her phone screen, the landscape behind him grassy.

“How’s the mission trip going?” Race asked. Race played with the pillow in his lap, as he had immediately plopped himself next to her on her mattress once the face-time call from Crutchie popped up.

“It’s going good,” Crutchie said, “we’re only here for a week, so we don’t get to do as much as I hoped. We’re helping paint a school tomorrow.”

“That’s great Crutch,” Race said. Crutchie shrugged, but then smiled.

“How are things at Pulitzer?” Crutchie asked, shifting slightly. Katherine wasn’t really sure what to say, but Race seemed like he had an answer at the ready.

“Things have been pretty good,” Race said, smiling deviously. “Me and Katherine are having a great time here!”

Crutchie raised a brow and turned to Katherine.

“Translation?” Crutchie asked.

“Race is annoying the hell out of me,” Katherine said, but there was no malice in her voice. Race splayed his hand across his chest dramatically, face screwed up in mock offense.

“I thought we were having a grand, old time,” Race said. “But fine, I see how it is.”

Crutchie laughed on the screen.

“I would love to talk more, but the mission trip leader is calling me over. Don’t kill each other.”

Crutchie disappeared from the screen, and Katherine quickly shut down her laptop and slipped under her bed on top of her dresser. By time she turned back around she found Race leaned back on one pillow, eyes shut.

“What are you doing?” Katherine asked. Race didn’t bother opening his eyes.

“Taking a nap.”

“In my bed?”

“Yes.”

Katherine sighed, but didn’t fight him, instead just pulling out her phone to text Spot. Within five minutes, Race was snoring.


	5. Stormy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey calms Race in a storm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: Fear of thunderstorms/hurricane like events

Davey wasn’t sure what to do. Outside was storming, rain falling in uneven sheets that made a cacophony against the Manhattan streets below. He watched outside of his window for a minute more when a crack of lightening frightened him for a second, sending him reeling back from the window.

He sighed and turned away from the window. The rain wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon, and he had feeling one or two newsies would be popping up soon to hide out here. He eyed the clock on the wall — just after four, meaning they would be mostly done for the day (save the evening edition) meaning at least they won’t loose a day of work even if they most likely wouldn’t get their normal day’s worth.

His eyes wondered lazily to the pull-out couch. With that loss, Davey was inclined to just let them sleep here when they arrived. Let them reciprocate their loss before going back to the Lodge. Davey nodded to himself and turned towards the bedroom, where they kept sheets at the trunk of the foot of the bed. They had neglected to put new ones on after Les last stayed over, and they would need new ones for whatever newsies that popped up needing a place to sleep.

Davey walked towards the door to the bedroom but hesitated outside of it. Race had disappeared since inside since it had first started drizzling, saying he was going to take a nap. He didn’t want to wake Race up, but he would need them before they showed up.

Davey turned the knob slowly, opening the door softly and surely, peeking inside.

“Race, sweetheart, I don’t mean to wake you but—“

Davey cut himself off. Race wasn’t napping, he hadn’t even made it to the bed. Instead, he had taken residence on the floor next to the dresser along the far wall, knees brought to his chest, eyes shut as tears streamed and his body shook in time to the lightening and thunder outside.

“Race?” Davey asked cautiously, taking two steps into the room. Race’s eyes didn’t open, and he didn’t say anything. “Race, it’s me, David.”

Davey kneeled in front of Race, starting to reach a hand out but stoping himself. Davey had only seen Race like this once before, back in the early days of their relationship when he was seventeen and Race was sixteen. Race had been snatched up by some thugs, soaked until he more scars than skin. Race had been near inconsolable, mumbling about the Refuge and how he was sorry and that he didn’t want to go back.

Back then, Race had jerked away from him, and it had only made it worse. Years had passed since then, they were older, adults now, and with more trust between them. He didn’t know what the right thing to do was, how to figure out what was going on.

Another round of thunder rolled — louder than Davey had ever heard it before — and it startled his heart.

That was nothing compared to Race’s reaction. Race’s eyes flew open with a screech, hands flying to his ears. Race’s eyes were wide, pupils flying around the room, unable to focus on anything.

“Race,” Davey said, voice sterner than perhaps it should have been, “Race. Look at me.”

He didn’t, just kept looking around. Davey furrowed his brow.

“Antonio.”

This got Race’s attention. Race’s eyes snapped to Davey, still wide and afraid. He sucked in a breath and slowly pulled down his hands to his chest.

“David?” Race whispered. Davey nodded once and raised up a hand.

“Yes, it’s me, David,” Davey said. Race almost looked relieved. “Race, I-I — Can - can I touch you? Is that okay?”

Race didn’t say anything, just kept staring at Davey for a long, agonizing moment. Then Race nodded subtly, only giving a slight incline of his head.

“Hold me,” Race said softly. “Please.”

“Okay,” Davey said. Davey shifted to sitting next to Race, and reached to put one arm around Race’s shoulder. Race pulled closer to Davey, and Davey took hold of one of Race’s hands, squeezing tightly.

Lightening cracked, and Race flinched. Davey frowned.

“The storm,” Davey said. “You’re afraid of the storm, aren’t you?”

If it were a normal day, Davey would have gotten a cheeky grin and a quip about how he figured it out ‘all on his own’. But today Race just nodded slowly and whimpered softly as thunder cracked.

“Oh ‘Tonio...” Davey said. He pecked Race’s temple once and pulled him closer. “It’s okay. The storm can’t hurt you. It’s not that bad.”

Race blinked once, and was quiet.

“Hurricane,” was all Race said. Davey furrowed his brow. “Like the hurricane.”

Davey sighed. He knew exactly what Race was talking about, despite how little Race said. Race hadn’t always been in Manhattan, once upon a time Race had been Antonio Higgins, Mississippi boy. His family had moved there right before his birth, wanting him to grow up somewhere away from a city. That was before Race was five, and a hurricane had come through, destroying their home and leaving Race with only his dad. His grandparents had sent down barely enough to get Race and his dad back up to New York.

Race didn’t talk about pre-New York. He didn’t talk about the hurricane or his mom or the trip back up. From what Davey surmised, he was the only one to know this part of Race’s history at all. Davey knew how much that hurricane messed with Race, how it popped up every once in a while in nightmares between the Refuge and the years on the street and the starving days.

Race had still never acted like this in a storm before. Then again, Davey and Race hadn’t been together in a storm like this before.

Davey placed another kiss to Race’s hair.

“I know,” Davey said, even though he didn’t really know. “It’s okay sweetheart. It’ll be over soon. I promise.” Davey didn’t actually know how long it would last, but it felt like the right thing to say.

Race curled his head into Davey’s shoulder, and Davey didn’t say much else. Just held Race close and let him calm down as the storm continued. Eventually, Race’s tears stopped and a crack of thunder didn’t send him spiraling. Davey believed that to be a good sign. 

“I’m sorry,” Race said after several long minutes. Davey blinked.

“For what?” Davey asked.

“For freaking out on ya’” Race said. “It’s just a rainstorm, I shouldn’t have —“

“Okay, shut up,” Davey said. Race looked up in surprise, eyes still red from crying. “If you start apologizing for being upset, now or anytime in the future, then I will soak you. Or worse, get Spot to come soak you.”

Race frowned, confused, but then he smiled, a pale imitation of his regular smile.

“You’re allowed to feel Race,” Davey said gently. “It’s okay to be scared. Don’t-don’t apologize for being scared or upset. Especially not to me.”

Race went silent again, then he reached up and kissed the corner of Davey’s mouth.

“Can you stay?” Race said. Then a real, true, Racetrack Higgins grin spread across his face. “At least till the fellas show up demanding our stuff.”

Davey rolled his eyes and hugged him tighter. He rested his chin on Race’s blond curls with a smile.

“Of course love,” Davey said. Silence came again, and Davey just let the time pass as slowly as he could. The only thing he could hear was the sound of their breath and the storm aside. Davey would have even swore that Race had taken that nap he said he was going to take, because, though Davey loved him, sleep was the only time he ever shut up, if it hadn’t of been for particularly large claps of thunder that made Race jump.

Soon, far too soon for either of their tastes, their came a knock on the door.

Davey and Race shared a glance, and Davey raised his brow, a silent question asking if Race wanted to ignore it.

Race shook his head. “It’d be rude to leave’em out. ‘Could get sick.” Race squeezed Davey’s hand quickly before standing. “You’se get the door, I’se just need a minute.”

Davey stood. “Are you su—?”

Race rolled his eyes and pushed Davey out of the bedroom.

“I’se fine, really,” Race said. “I know that don’t do much to assure the worry in you’se, but really. Answer it.” He pecked Davey’s lips quickly before disappearing back into the room again.

“I love you!” he called back to Davey.

“Love you too.”

Davey sighed and turned away, heading towards the door, sincerely hoping Race was right, that he was okay.


	6. Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Romeo talks, but not for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set in the ‘RomeoKelly!AU’. Romeo is about seven and a half months, Jack is a few months shy of nineteen, Charlie is recently seventeen, Race is sixteen, Les in nine, and Davey is seventeen. I played a little fast and loose with Romeo’s development in regards to sitting, but it worked for the plot.

It had been a very dreadful and long day. Jacobi, ever the saint, was allowing Jack to stack up with on his hours. He was trying desperately to get enough money to get out of Medda’s house, because even though she had been nice enough to let him and Romeo stay thing long, he also knew Medda was trying to raise lots of kids and the room him and Romeo were taking up would do well a foster boy or girl that needed it. Medda had tried to say that she didn’t care the duo had taken up a semi-permanent residence in her home, but Jack minded just a little. Perhaps more than he should.

This lead to him working double and sometime even triple shifts on the regular, spending more time at that diner than he did at home. And even though he was grateful that Jacobi had granted them to him and the small part of him desperate for his and Romeo survival was even more so, but the other part of him, the one that ached for one moment of rest found the endless hours of carrying stacks of dishes and reading menus until his eyes bled nearly burst into tears from joy when he stepped into Medda’s home that evening. Because he was home, and he would be there until the next morning.

It was loud, when he entered, that was no surprise. It was Medda’s home, someone was always crying or yelling or making noise. Though normally, to everyone surprise it was not the literal teething baby that made the most noise, but the loud-mouth not quite seventeen yet Race. So it was no shock that it was Race’s voice first that he heard.

“Jackie!” Race greeted, sitting upside down in his chair. His legs were crossed where the head usually went, and his face was nearly red from all the blood rushing to it. The almost eighteen (and sill quiet new to foster care, let alone Medda’s house) Davey Jacobs was sitting next to Race, head buried in a book and seeming a little annoyed. It seemed Race had been talking the bookish brunet’s ear off before Jack entered.

“How was work?”

Jack gave a grunt in response, finding that was the only acceptable answer he could muster for his long day. 

“Someone’s in a bad mood,” piped up nine-year-old Les Jacobs, who unlike his brother, hadn’t quite mastered the art of being quiet. 

Jack grunted again. “Where’s Romeo?”

“In the kitchen with Charlie,” Race said. He still hadn’t returned to correct sitting position. Jack nodded at the information and made move to go to the kitchen.

“You’re welcome!” Race called after Jack, and Jack ignored him as the white kitchen door swung behind him. 

In the center of the kitchen, as Race had said, was Romeo sitting in his highchair. He was covered in a conconaction of what appeared to be serveral different kinds of baby food. He was clapping happily and smiling, like this was the best thing he could ever experience as he looked at Crutchie.

_ “Charlie,”  _ Jack corrected himself. “ _ He wants to be called Charlie now.”  _ It was a little strange to get used to calling Charlie something else. The blond had decided to shed his childhood nickname, and in the twelve years Jack had known his younger brother, he had never referred to him as anything else. Going back to his birth name was important for Charlie, Jack knew that, but it was still real hard to adjust to.

Charlie was holding a spoon towards Romeo, and it seemed Charlie was attempting to feed him mushed carrots.

“Mmm! Yummy carrots! ” Charlie, who hated carrots in all forms, said. “Here comes the airplane!” Charlie pushed it towards Romeo, who took the spoonful easily and with no complaint. It seemed Romeo liked carrots. Jack would have to get more.

“Hey you two,” Jack said, walking towards them.  Before Charlie even had time to turn around, Romeo was squealing and reaching out towards Jack with small, grubby hands.

Jack shot Charlie a smile but passed by him and made his way to Romeo, reaching down and pecked the top of his head, at least the part with the least amount of mushy food curled into his hair. 

“I see eating dinner has been an adventure, hasn’t it tater-tot?” Jack asked. Romeo just smiled and banged his hands on the messy tray of his high chair.

“Yeah, little mister Romeo here decided he wouldn’t eat anything but carrots,” Charlie answered in Romeo’s steed, shifting in the wooden dining chair. “Wish he had told me before we had started.” 

Jack laughed under his breath and reached to pick up Romeo, thinking it was high time for a bath for little Romeo.

“Well, thanks for feeding Romeo for me Charlie,” Jack said. Charlie waved Jack off with a flick of his wrist. 

“I was glad to do it,” Charlie said. “Beats math homework.”

Jack sighed under his breath and would have hit his little brother upside the head if Romeo hadn’t of been in his arms.

“Go do your math homework,” Jack said, “it’ll help your brains grow and all that jazz. Problem-solving skills.” 

Charlie smiled in an almost wicked way.

“And in the meanwhile,” Jack said, lifting up Romeo to eye level and grinning in that kind way he saved only for his son, “I’m going to give tater-tot here a bath, because it seems he hasn’t learned food goes in his mouth.”

Romeo just giggled and reached out to smack Jacks nose affectionately, smudging a bit of dark green pea mush across the tip. This seemed to the pincale of comedy for Romeo, seeing Jack with a single smear of green peas on him, because he just laughed harder.

“‘A’dy!” Romeo said between laughs, and Jack was vaguely aware that Charlie took in a sharp breath. Jack was a first confused by what “ _ A’dy’ _ was, since he had never heard Romeo or really anyone say it before. “A’dy! A’dy!”

_ A’dy _ .  _ Daddy.  _

Romeo was trying to say Daddy.

Jack blinked, equal parts shocked, excited, and just a little bit sad.  _ A’dy _ was not his first word. No, that distinction went to when he called April ‘Ma’ a month and a half ago. (She had left that night, so it was the only time he had ever said that. Jack often wondered if Romeo would get the chance to call April that again.) Yet somehow, this felt like that first moment, when Romeo had said his first word. This was the first time Romeo had ever talked  _ to _ Jack. Romeo  _ knew,  _ Romeo knew who Jack was to him.

Jack smiled and kissed his cheek, not caring that his face was now smudged with even more various baby foods.

“Come on tater-tot. Bath time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to start the Romeo Kelly AU with him as a baby, but the story took place when he was five, but I still have ideas and thoughts about stuff that happened this point in Romeo and Jack’s lives.


	7. At The Mall

From Pain-In-My-Ass (Race)

I can’t hang out tonight, sorry. Homework!

From SHUT UP, MOM (Davey)

I’ve got to help Les with a project for school. Sorry I can’t hang out tonight, you guys have fun!

Jack frowned at his phone. 

“What is it Jack?” Katherine asked, peeking over his shoulder to look at his phone. Jack flinched back in surprise, his arm barely missing her chin.

“Shit babe!” Jack said, slipping his phone back in his pocket, breathing hard. “Make noise when you move!”

Katherine rolled her eyes slipped into the seat next to him. The smell of the mall’s food court mingled into the air and Jack barely held back a look of disgust at the mixture of food and the malls cleaning product.

“Who were you texting?” Katherine asked, as if he hadn’t spoken at all. Jack sighed and leaned back in his chair.

“Race and Davey,” Jack said.

“Let me guess?” Spot said across from him, not looking up from where he was playing with Crutchie’s hair. “The Dynamic Duo are busy again?”

It had become a tradition almost. Anytime they made plans to hang out, Race and Davey came up with miraculous excuses on why they couldn’t show. It was frustrating, mostly because with Davey mostly out-of-state for college now, their time with him is limited. Spring Break was ending fast, and Jack had seen his best friend maybe twice.

Crutchie smacked his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“Don’t be so hard on them Spot,” Crutchie said. “Maybe they’re just really busy!” Crutchie’s eyes widened. “What if they’re secretly dating!”

Albert scoffed and reached to flick Crutchie’s ear, but Spot’s death glare (which Crutchie didn’t see) scared him away from the action.

“Yeah right,” Albert said. “Mister Racetrack ‘Can’t Stay Organized for Five Seconds’ Higgins dating David ‘My Label Maker Broke’ Jacobs? Get real Crutchie.”

Crutchie  shrugged. “Weirder couples have happened. I mean, no one thought me and Spot would be a couple and look! Me and Spot are going on two years!”

Spot kissed Crutchie’s temple. “That’s just cuz we’re soulmates Crutch.”

Jack made a gagging sound. Spot was never sentimental or mushy with anyone except Crutchie, but then his soft side came out in full force. Didn’t matter who was near, they got the full dosage of The Spot Will Die For Crutchie Parade.

“Shut up Kelly,” Spot said, finally tearing his eyes away from Crutchie finally. “Just cuz you’re Crutchie’s brother don’t mean I won’t fight you.”

Crutchie looked up at Spot and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Leave him be Spot,” Crutchie said. “He’s just jealous.”

“Jealous?” Jack asked, raising a brow. “Are you forgetting I have a girlfriend?”

“A girlfriend that is hungry,” Katherine said, fishing trough her purse for her wallet. “I’m gonna go buy a pretzel. You guys want anything?”

“Can I get a coke?” Albert asked. “I’ll pay you back after.” Katherine and nodded and rose to stand. Spot quickly followed after.

“I’ll go with ya Kitty,” Spot said. “I’m kinda hungry too.” He looked back down at Crutchie. “You want anything babe?”

“I’m good,” Crutchie said. Spot nodded and set off with Katherine, and Jack rolled his eyes at Spot linking their arms together. Spot was such a dork, though he tried to deny it.

“Seriously though,” Albert said, “what do you think Race and Davey are up to? Because they’re totally up to something.”

Crutchie played with the chain of his necklace.

“I’m still holding to my theory they’re engaged in a secret romance,” Crutchie said.

“They’re not dating Crutchie,” Jack said. Jack couldn’t quite see Davey and Race get along long enough to like each other let alone date and/or fall in love. They always bickered too much, had fights over every little thing, and just were too different. It was like sun and the moon. Night and day. Co-existing but better separated.

“I sure as hell hope they aren’t,” Albert said. “First Spot and Crutchie, then you and Kath, plus Elmer and Buttons? I would be the only single guy left in the group. Race and Davey better not leave me out to dry like that.”

Crutchie rolled his eyes. “It’s not that bad being single Al.”

“Said like a man in a relationship,” Jack said. Crutchie threw a balled up napkin at him.

“You’re in a relationship!” Crutchie said.

Jack gave a toothy grin. “I like to think of it as Long-Term Committed Booty Call.”

Crutchie sighed and leaned back in his chair.

“How did we come to the point where me dating Spot Conlon was the normal relationship?” Crutchie asked the sky, looking helplessly up at the steel roof.

Albert snorted. “Easy. Jack and Kath are both insane, Elmer and Buttons have too much PDA, and Sarah and Specs fight too much. The only thing Spot and you have going is that Spot is a huge dork and says all that weird lovey-davey crap.”

Crutchie pouted his lip. “I think he’s sweet...”

“Okay first of all, Kath is not insane, she’s eccentric,” Jack defended. “And second of all, Spot always going on about how you two are soulmates and how much he loves you is annoying as hell.”

Crurchie reached for the necklace again.

“I—uh—I actually wanted to talk to you guys about something. About me and Spot.”

Jack raised an eyebrow.

“You and Spot breaking up or something?” Albert asked.

Crutchie shook his head furiously.

“No-no,” Crutchie assured. “We — uh — he asked me to —“

“We’re back!” Katherine said, plopping down in her old seat with a smile. She slid a blue lidded cup down to Albert who took it with a smile and reached into his pocket for the dollar the drink had cost, while Katherine just took a bite of her pretzel with a knowing smile.

“What’s that look about?” Jack asked, tilting his head to the side. Spot gave an identical twin grin as he slipped next to Crutchie, plopping a thing of pretzel bites between the two of them, because Crutchie’s ‘I’m good’ was actually a very polite way of him saying ‘I’m very hungry’, something everyone in the friend group knew.

“You’ll never guess who we ran into!” Spot said, slipping an arm around Crutchie’s shoulders.

“Who?” Crutchie asked, leaning into his side.

“One Les Jacobs with his mother,” Katherine said, eyes glinting with mischief. “And they said Les had no school project and that Davey has been gone all day.”

Crutchie squealed. “This just proves they’re dating!”

“No it doesn’t!” Albert shot back. “It just proves Davey lied to us!” Albert’s face twisted in confusion. “Wait — why did he lie to us?”

^ **^** ^

“Race, we have to pick a movie,” Davey said, chin resting on his boyfriend’s shoulder. Race pouted up at the sign displaying the movie titles. “If we don’t soon, the group might find us.”

Race snorted and leaned back against Davey’s chest. Davey hugged Race’s waist tighter.

“Don’t rush me,” Race said. “I’m trying to find the perfect date night movie.”

“You couldn’t have picked it in the car off the website?” Davey asked, looking up to make sure none of their friend group filtered in. “You’re the one who wanted to keep us a secret, so you can’t also drag me to where our friends are walking around and then take forever to pick a movie darling.”

“What can I say? I live for the rush!” Race said. Davey supposed that was true. Ever since winter break — when they had started secretly dating — Race had almost exposed them many times. Sometimes by accident, when Race had almost tried to kiss Davey good bye during one of Davey’s weekend visits, other times on purpose, like right now when he took Davey to the movie theater in the mall their friend were hanging out in.

“Can you at least hurry?” Davey asked. “You still have school in the morning, and we can’t be out until then.” While Davey was a college freshmen, Race was still in his senior year of high school.

“I can always skip,” Race offered. “Spend the day with you.”

“Race, you have to go to school,” Davey said. Race sighed and turned around to face Davey, slipping his hands around his neck.

“No, what I have to do is spend as much time with my boyfriend as possible,” Race said. 

“No, what you have to do is pick a damn movie,” Davey said. “And then go to school.”

Race sighed but leaned forward, capturing Davey’s lips in a kiss. Davey quickly melted into the kiss, wrapping his arms tighter around his boyfriend’s. Race’s hands threaded into the ends of Davey’s hairs, leaving curls Race knew would be there after he let go.

“I knew it!” Race and Davey sprang apart. Davey looked to the sound of the voice and found Crutchie at the edge of the movie theater’s lobby, Spot directly at his heel with a sigh. Crutchie turned to his boyfriend with a smile. “Spot I was right. You all said I was crazy but I was right!”

“Right about what?” Albert asked, appearing with a box of SweetTarts.

“Race and Davey are dating!” Crutchie said. Albert finally looked over at them, eyes widening in surprise before they just looked defeated.

“Hold on, no, we’re not —“ Davey started, but Race cut him off.

“Cat’s out of the bag Davey,” Race said. Davey looked at him in exasperation.

“You’re the one who wanted to keep us a secret and you’re just giving it up like that?!” Davey exclaimed. Race nodded.

“Yes.”

Jack and Katherine suddenly appeared, and looked between Crutchie’s smile and Alberts upset expression and then at Race and Davey.

“Oh, so Crutchie was right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spot/Crutchie is valid and though I don’t write for it often, I still love the ship.
> 
> Questions, comments, or concerns? Let me know!  
> —PrincessChess


	8. Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack and Katherine discuss baby names. Set in early 1914.

“What about Alice? Or Mary? Or even Hannah?” Jack suggested at the foot of the bed. Katherine shrugged and settled back against her pillow, one arm wrapped loosely but protectively across her abdomen. 

“Those are all nice, I suppose,” Katherine mumbled tiredly. Jack smiled and crossed his legs, sitting up unnaturally straight, like a student in class.

“You called my name’s pretty,” Jack said, eyes shining mischievously, “does that mean I get top marks Professor Plumber?” Katherine sighed heavily and lightly kicked his knee with a smile she tried to hide behind a scowl. “I’se just teasing, m’fhíorghra.”

Katherine bit her lip and turned to look up at the ceiling, imagining that the wooden beams above disappeared and were replaced with stars and wisps of dark gray clouds in the night sky. Fifteen years ago, she perhaps wouldn’t have given a second thought to the night sky, let alone wished to see it, but now at thirty-two and a decade and a half years with Jack, her appreciation for the sky had grown exponentially. Maybe it came from the reverent way Jack spoke of it that made her love it more, or maybe it was something that came from growing older and learning to appreciate smaller things. Maybe a mixture of both.

“You haven’t suggested any boy names,” Katherine said. “Why?” Jack shrugged and crawled up next to her, lying on his stomach on the mattress.

“With our track record?” Jack grinned and kissed her cheek. “We’se got five little girls. I’se just going off history here.”

That made sense Katherine supposed. After five daughters, it seemed overwhelmingly like this sixth child was set to be a girl too. Katherine loved her daughters — willful Annabelle, the mischievous Jane and Jillian, creative Rose, and the young and wild Melanie. She loved them all to the moon and back, and everyday her loved for them grew, even if she didn’t know how it was possible. From the second she had felt them growing inside her, she had felt something new, something unexplainable open in her chest. Like a new hole she couldn’t quite refill, and it wasn’t until they were born and she held them in her arms did she understand that it an ache to know them — to love them and hold them and keep them safe. 

And even though she loved her girls and all the time she spent with them; the hours spent thinking of words big and funny to say when you didn’t know what to say, marking up rhymes and stories and playing pretending, the pictures and colors and crayons and the little hands that were covered in ink and charcoal and dirt from flower pots. She wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. Yet, there was a part of her that wanted a son too. A little boy with Jack’s smile and her eyes, that had the same kind of bright fire her husband and daughters had, the one that seemed to be entwined in a Kelly’s life from birth, the one that didn’t let them give up on anything and anyone.

“I hope we have a boy,” Katherine said. Jack tilted his head to the side curiously, and Katherine continued on like he had asked for more. “I mean, it won’t love our child any less if they are a girl. I love our daughters and I’ll love this one too just as much. But it’d be nice to have a son, someone with your big mouth and my inability to think things through and—“

She was rambling now, or at least starting to. Jack cut her off with a quick kiss and grinned at her, tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear.

“Can I tell ya something?” Jack said. “I kinda hope they’se a boy too.” He cut his eyes to the door before returning to her. “I love the girls — Annie and Jane and Jill and Rose and little Melly. I’d trade my life for them, you know that. But, if I’m being a little honest here, it’d be nice to be a little less outnumbered around here.”

Katherine giggled once, sounding very much younger in that instant. 

“We still have to come up with a name love, if it’s a boy,” Katherine said. “They’ll be very upset if he arrivs and the only name prepared is Hannah Grace.” Jack shrugged and rolled into his back. 

“We’se got three months,” Jack said. His eyes twinkled. “‘Asides, you already said I come up with pretty names. I’se sure I could come up with a pretty good name for them on the spot.”

Katherine sighed deeply. “If it  _ is _ a boy, I sincerely hope they turn out to be a less impossible one than you.”

“He’ll be half-me,” Jack said. “So, only half-impossible. They’re also half-you, so they’ll also be half-stubborn.”

If she wasn’t currently propped up by them, she would have hit him with her pillow. But as she was, Katherine had to settle for just sending him a scolding look that he returned with a cheeky grin.

“Must you be so irritating?”

“Oh, I love you too Katherine.”

Three months later, the names Mary, Alice, Hannah, and Grace were unnecessary. Because in the end, the baby’s name was Charles Louis Kelly. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> m’fhíorghra — my true love (in Irish Gaelic.)
> 
> This is like criminally short, but I got the Jatherine feels today and had to get them down and out some how. 
> 
> Questions, comments, or concerns? Let me know! Have a blessed day!  
> —PrincessChess


End file.
